No Matter Where You Go, There You Are
Ah yes, a newsletter. A very writerly thing to do, which is more writing to distract from the other writing I should be doing. Welcome! I’m really excited to have you here, and I cannot wait to share some very exciting announcements coming soon about future comics work (and my frogs). But before then, I’d like to formally re-introduce myself to your inboxes:
My name is Amy Chase, but you may see me online as “Thunderjam” as well. That nickname, I feel, perfectly encapsulates the love of Thor and quirky fun that was my first internet “brand”. I wish I could say I came up with it myself, but it’s actually a deep cut Chip Zdarsky graphic design gag I borrowed wholesale (more on that another day). I am a genre girly and a big geek, specializing in writing horror, fantasy, and supernatural stories, plus troves of fanfiction I hope you’ll never find. I’m a big advocate for fanfic as a very valid and important stepping stone towards strengthening your writing — because what is IP writing if not slightly more professional fanfiction?
So far, I’ve contributed to about a dozen comics anthologies like LET HER BE EVIL, FANTASTIC FRIGHTS, and WON’T BACK DOWN, as well as two published projects for Archie Horror, and coming up next, a crime-centric backup story in Chip Zdarsky and Jacob Phillips’ NEWBURN (more on that shortly). I’ve also had various works of prose and flash fiction published in literary magazines, most of which can be found for free on my website. I’ll do my best to highlight past projects in this newsletter too between announcements.
Thunderous Origins
When it comes to fandom, but more specifically comics, these are few core tenets I believe:
It is never too late to start reading comics.
Every comic has the most magical potential to be someone’s first comic.
There is no wrong way to read comics. (Says the girl who read her first manga completely backwards despite the TokyoPop WARNING! page. IYKYK.)
In middle school, I had a full-blown manga phase. All magical girl stuff — a media snob friend told me I wasn’t “mature enough” to read Bleach, so I stuck to books like Tokyo Mew Mew, Angelic Layer, and Magic Knight Rayearth. I so badly wanted to draw like Mia Ikumi and Moyoco Anno. But that faded out when I started high school, as I began to focus on classic literature more and planned to go to college for an English degree.
I didn’t start really reading single issue comics as a monthly, regular habit until 2012, just before I was about to head to college. I was (gasp) one of the casuals who was inspired by the first Avengers film to head to my local store and see what Hawkeye and Black Widow stuff they had. Before that, I’d collected a few old New Teen Titans issues from a garage sale and bought Bart Simpson comics from the local Barnes and Noble to read on a flight. I grew up on the Teen Titans animated series, but unfortunately there really wasn’t good demographic synergy for the contemporary books they were putting out with those characters when I was younger. So I didn’t get into them.
My first local comic store is no longer, but it was a place called Comics Ink, staffed by two incredibly kind, patient gentlemen who never once made me feel unwelcome. I was never asked if the books were for a boy in my life. I was never recommended to just stick with the girly stuff. I was, however, told, “You know, you can leave us a list of titles you’d like for us to hold so you don’t have to stop by every week and ask if the newest Hawkeye came out yet.” (Not that they didn’t love having me in the store.) It was a learning experience. I read a lot of random issues not realizing things were part of greater arcs. I didn’t know anything existed beyond Marvel and DC.
Then, books like Young Avengers, Ms. Marvel, and Black Widow all began to trickle out over the coming months and years. Thor: God of Thunder was also halfway through its run by the time I actually started paying attention (shock of all shocks, I know!). I went off to college and started to engage with my local store. Eventually, the “female Thor” mystery was announced and I began pulling that too. I picked up Sex Criminals because it sounded edgy and naughty. My love for Young Avengers became a curiosity for WicDiv. It was a slippery slope, and when I started working at the comic store my sophomore year of college, I got up to a point where I was pulling roughly 30 books a month, in addition to what I read on lunch breaks to recommend to customers.
I was equally inspired by a mix of “Oh my god, I want to tell stories like THAT” and “Oh my god, I could totally tell that story better” and wrote my first comic in 2016 with Haley Boros, for a small anthology called THEY HAVE ISSUES, featuring a bunch of women who worked in comic stores at the time. And it only took 7 years of more writing to get to March of this year, seeing POP’S CHOCK’LIT SHOPPE OF HORRORS from Archie Comics on the shelves of numerous stores, with my name on the cover for the first time. The comics writing path wasn’t easy or linear and I very nearly gave up several times (and I’m sure there will be more challenges to come), but I’ll save that all for later. And I wouldn’t say I feel comfortable declaring “I’ve made it.” There’s breaking in and staying in, and the industry is ever-changing. There’s lots of work yet to be done.
11 years later, it’s weird to call myself a “late bloomer” on the comics reading scene, but it really wasn’t something I grew up with. You’d never know that if you met me these days. But it’s something important to me, and something important to remember. You never know which book, which day, which person will cause the perfect alchemical reaction of serotonin and serendipity — creating a new reader, artist, writer, retailer, or editor in the process. And the books I’m writing now have that same power, that beautiful, terrifying potential, to inspire someone out of pure love or pure spite for what they just read. And I think that’s cooler than any superpower I could ever put to page.
So, What’s Next?
At LACC this past weekend, I got a chance to stop by Chip Zdarsky’s table and chat with him over NEWBURN #13, out December 20. I haven’t seen him in person since a comics signing in 2017, before I was really writing seriously. Chip and Jacob Phillips not only have a killer crime series on their hands with NEWBURN, but they’ve been featuring backup stories by a true murderer’s row of talent doing their own NYC-set crime stories across clusters of four issues.
Thus far, this has included the talents of Nadia Shammas, Ziyed Yusuf Ayoub, Casey Gilly, Soo Lee, David Brothers, and Nick Dragotta. NEWBURN #13-16 features yet another story, this time by myself and the incredible Fabian Lelay (with colors by Desolina Fletcher and letters by Toben Racicot). With Chip’s support, and the invaluable guidance of super editor and ChipClass alum Allison O’Toole, we’ve got 4 five-page segments forming a complete 20 page heist story releasing over the next few months.
I’m absolutely astounded by the opportunity to share this book space and this opportunity with so many creators whose work I admire. Collaborating with Fabian was a big hope of mine for a while, as I have several commissions from him of my TTRPG characters and other favorite super heroines. His style lends itself perfectly to this fantasy-tinged criminal adventure.
Our story is “Loaded Dice,” which is your monthly DND campaign meets Ocean’s 11. Four plucky college students use their tabletop game night as preparation to stage a heist targeting their NYC local police station. There will be dice, codenames, a critical hit or two, and even the sweetest blockheaded pit bull. I cannot wait for you to see it. It’s been a privilege and a labor of love a long time coming.
It’s also important to note, this story will ONLY be in the single issues and not in the trade compilation of NEWBURN, so be sure to pick it up while you can!
That’s all for now, but I’ll have another licensed project soliciting later this month too, so you’ll get an update in a few weeks when that gets shared…
Obligatory OnlyFrogs
As promised, if you made it this far in the newsletter, you shall be rewarded with pictures of my pet frogs! Yes, they’re darts and no, they’re not poisonous. Their names are Fred (short for Winnifrog) and Illyria, after Amy Acker’s roles in Angel. Yes, everything’s a reference with me.
Fast Stats:
Currently Watching: Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4
Currently Reading: Eight Limbs by Stephanie Phillips and Giulia Lalli
Currently Playing: Astarion Simp Simulator 2023
Currently Listening: Garth Marenghi’s TerrorTome on Audiobook